7 ms·

I was born in the USA, but every day I question if I will be able to afford to retire in this country, or if I need to plan to emmegrate elsewhere while I still

I was born in the USA, but every day I question if I will be able to afford to retire in this country, or if I need to plan to emmegrate elsewhere while I still can. My primary concern is healthcare costs. How am I supposed to budget for healthcare costs during retirement when it's already so complicated. 530,000 American households are bankrupt each year due to medical costs [1]. It seems like the most complex piece of the retirement planning puzzle. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most...

andrewmcwatters 5y ago
Some few months ago I was trying to think of some sort of asset protection vehicle to prevent medical organizations from seizing everything I own in the event I face some catastrophic health issue. I don't think you can transfer property to a trust to shelter you from such events, though. They'd just go after the trust as far as I know. The bigger issue is that I shouldn't have to think about this sort of problem in my emergency or estate planning.
- rm445 5y ago
  It's weird though, you'd think that would be exactly the kind of risk that would be insurable. Privately or as a whole society. Some of us will keel over on the spot or otherwise incur near-zero end-of-life costs; others will need $2 million of care to make it through the last couple of years. It seems less relevant whether people in society pay their everyday medical costs out of pocket, compared to the fact that any one of us might need rare expensive treatment or complex care. The whole country sharing the risk as a massive national collective self-insurance exercise seems like the best solution.
  - op00to 5y ago
    Sorry, I don’t like it when MY money goes to help THOSE people. (Sarcasm)
throwthefuture 5y ago
I've had this concern for a while myself. I once quit a bay area tech startup job in my 20s due to burn out (5 years no vacation, easily 50+ hour weeks) and in those few months of taking time for myself I got hit by a bout of what I assume was appendicitis. I delayed going to the hospital because I didn't have insurance since I had just left my job. The pain passed that day, but then a few weeks later the same excruciating pain came back -- just really indescribable pain -- to the point where I semi-consciously was asking my partner to make sure I didn't die. Ended up at the hospital, they confirmed appendicitis, did the surgery in less than an hour, and I got hit with a $25k bill. I remember an administrator coming into the room before the surgery and asking me for a credit card while I was completely out of it, because I assume someone told them I didn't have insurance. After it all happened I was talking to a friend of mine who is an ER doctor and he told me, quite frankly, that if you ever find yourself in a situation like that to just leave your wallet at home and give a fake name. As a doctor they're going to treat you no matter what. It's horrifying that we have to deal with this system in the United States. It does make me consider seeking citizenship elsewhere, which I consider more seriously the older I get.
toomuchtodo 5y ago
Portugal has a great visa program if you can afford to invest in an investment fund or buy a property there (“Golden Visa”). It’s about 250k-500k EUR, but fast tracks your permanent status.
doggodaddo78 5y ago
Why are there so many American homeless people? Lack of funds... not the drugs, mental, lazy, etc. excuses. Why are there so many Americans with so little savings and yet hyperconcentration of wealth by a panoply of billionaires? Income inequality derived from the rich owning the political establishment.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  Why are there so many American homeless people? Lack of funds... not the drugs, mental, lazy, etc. excuses. Thank you for saying that. I will add: The US has some sucktastic housing policies that are an underlying cause of this social cancer.
  - doggodaddo78 5y ago
    I know a former NY Daily News and Village Voice writer and merchant mariner in Palo Alto/Campbell/Los Gatos, CA who is disabled and has no money except the paltry Social Security. He's perfectly sane, well-read, highly-intelligent (law school dropout in the hippie era), but lacks the funds to miraculously "pickup himself up by his bootstraps." A person can't get anywhere from nowhere without some sensible help like every other civilized country does. America is great if you're rich but it's like Brazil if you're not. European countries tend to be great if you're poor or middle-class, but not as great as the US if you're rich.
    - DoreenMichele 5y ago
      Yes, I'm aware. I have about six years of college. I spent nearly six years homeless. I still write about it sometimes on various blogs of mine, like Street Life Solutions.
      - doggodaddo78 5y ago
        Cool. I lived in a vehicle (a car, another car, and then a can) for 9 years to save rent and then to live minimally. It took me 10 years to graduate between work and the echos of the dotcom era messing-up course availability. Doing alright now if anyone were wondering.
doggodaddo78 5y ago
I met a girl at a coffee shop with nasal infusion pump and stage IV cancer. She was preparing for her bankruptcy hearing across the street because the doctors and hospitals were taking everything she had and she had to fight to keep some scraps. That's how America works: get sick, die and lose everything to vulture corporations.
dorchadas 5y ago
I'm debating this for myself currently. I'm a teacher and, in the low CoL area I live in, I make pretty well with good insurance and decent retirement because of when I started teaching. I am, however, getting a leave of absence to go to Ireland to pursue a masters program in Applied Math and Theoretical Physics. It's really tempting to just stay and work a data science job, though I do enjoy the time teaching gives me off, the fact it'll pay off my loans and that I can live comfortably with plenty to save to travel abroad for a few weeks every summer (I realize I might be one of the few teachers like this and I credit it solely to being single and no children). And, yeah, I'll get state insurance when I retire, but it just sounds nice living in Europe (using the Ireland masters as a jumping-off point for networking) and not having to worry about it at all, even if I have to give up a lot of the stuff I value about teaching (namely, 75+ days off a year and a decent work schedule)
maxerickson 5y ago
How many of those households are on Medicare?

andrewmcwatters 5y ago

Some few months ago I was trying to think of some sort of asset protection vehicle to prevent medical organizations from seizing everything I own in the event I face some catastrophic health issue. I don't think you can transfer property to a trust to shelter you from such events, though. They'd just go after the trust as far as I know. The bigger issue is that I shouldn't have to think about this sort of problem in my emergency or estate planning.

rm445 5y ago
It's weird though, you'd think that would be exactly the kind of risk that would be insurable. Privately or as a whole society. Some of us will keel over on the spot or otherwise incur near-zero end-of-life costs; others will need $2 million of care to make it through the last couple of years. It seems less relevant whether people in society pay their everyday medical costs out of pocket, compared to the fact that any one of us might need rare expensive treatment or complex care. The whole country sharing the risk as a massive national collective self-insurance exercise seems like the best solution.
- op00to 5y ago
  Sorry, I don’t like it when MY money goes to help THOSE people. (Sarcasm)

throwthefuture 5y ago

I've had this concern for a while myself. I once quit a bay area tech startup job in my 20s due to burn out (5 years no vacation, easily 50+ hour weeks) and in those few months of taking time for myself I got hit by a bout of what I assume was appendicitis. I delayed going to the hospital because I didn't have insurance since I had just left my job. The pain passed that day, but then a few weeks later the same excruciating pain came back -- just really indescribable pain -- to the point where I semi-consciously was asking my partner to make sure I didn't die. Ended up at the hospital, they confirmed appendicitis, did the surgery in less than an hour, and I got hit with a $25k bill. I remember an administrator coming into the room before the surgery and asking me for a credit card while I was completely out of it, because I assume someone told them I didn't have insurance. After it all happened I was talking to a friend of mine who is an ER doctor and he told me, quite frankly, that if you ever find yourself in a situation like that to just leave your wallet at home and give a fake name. As a doctor they're going to treat you no matter what. It's horrifying that we have to deal with this system in the United States. It does make me consider seeking citizenship elsewhere, which I consider more seriously the older I get.

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Portugal has a great visa program if you can afford to invest in an investment fund or buy a property there (“Golden Visa”). It’s about 250k-500k EUR, but fast tracks your permanent status.

doggodaddo78 5y ago

Why are there so many American homeless people? Lack of funds... not the drugs, mental, lazy, etc. excuses. Why are there so many Americans with so little savings and yet hyperconcentration of wealth by a panoply of billionaires? Income inequality derived from the rich owning the political establishment.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
Why are there so many American homeless people? Lack of funds... not the drugs, mental, lazy, etc. excuses. Thank you for saying that. I will add: The US has some sucktastic housing policies that are an underlying cause of this social cancer.
- doggodaddo78 5y ago
  I know a former NY Daily News and Village Voice writer and merchant mariner in Palo Alto/Campbell/Los Gatos, CA who is disabled and has no money except the paltry Social Security. He's perfectly sane, well-read, highly-intelligent (law school dropout in the hippie era), but lacks the funds to miraculously "pickup himself up by his bootstraps." A person can't get anywhere from nowhere without some sensible help like every other civilized country does. America is great if you're rich but it's like Brazil if you're not. European countries tend to be great if you're poor or middle-class, but not as great as the US if you're rich.
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    Yes, I'm aware. I have about six years of college. I spent nearly six years homeless. I still write about it sometimes on various blogs of mine, like Street Life Solutions.
    - doggodaddo78 5y ago
      Cool. I lived in a vehicle (a car, another car, and then a can) for 9 years to save rent and then to live minimally. It took me 10 years to graduate between work and the echos of the dotcom era messing-up course availability. Doing alright now if anyone were wondering.

doggodaddo78 5y ago

I met a girl at a coffee shop with nasal infusion pump and stage IV cancer. She was preparing for her bankruptcy hearing across the street because the doctors and hospitals were taking everything she had and she had to fight to keep some scraps. That's how America works: get sick, die and lose everything to vulture corporations.

dorchadas 5y ago

I'm debating this for myself currently. I'm a teacher and, in the low CoL area I live in, I make pretty well with good insurance and decent retirement because of when I started teaching. I am, however, getting a leave of absence to go to Ireland to pursue a masters program in Applied Math and Theoretical Physics. It's really tempting to just stay and work a data science job, though I do enjoy the time teaching gives me off, the fact it'll pay off my loans and that I can live comfortably with plenty to save to travel abroad for a few weeks every summer (I realize I might be one of the few teachers like this and I credit it solely to being single and no children). And, yeah, I'll get state insurance when I retire, but it just sounds nice living in Europe (using the Ireland masters as a jumping-off point for networking) and not having to worry about it at all, even if I have to give up a lot of the stuff I value about teaching (namely, 75+ days off a year and a decent work schedule)

maxerickson 5y ago

How many of those households are on Medicare?